Günther Groissböck & Gerold Huber – Herz-Tod (2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

The Austrian bassist Günther Groissböck calls his new album project a “kind of artistic creed”. The album is a very personal selection of four song cycles by Brahms, Wagner, Wolf and Mahler, including the “Wesendonck Lieder” sung for the first time by a bass voice, summarized under the drastically striking title Herz-Tod, which at first reminds one of the cause of death rather than of highly romantic music. The four song cycles unite the thematic brackets of love, death, transience and fragility, both in the real and in the emotional sense.

With his Arnold Schwarzenegger physique, bass singer Günther Groissbock – himself an Austrian – has major stage presence, as Sarastro, Fafner, Hunding, Boris Godounov and many other of the huge roles for his voice. And he has been present on the stages of Berlin, Geneva, Vienna, Munich, Chicago, Bayreuth, Amsterdam, New York, Paris and much of the rest of the lyrical world. And yet, it’s in the most intimate of repertoires that he is performing here alongside pianist Gerold Huber: the Four Serious Songs by Brahms (transposed into a much more sombre, almost scenic, tone, it’s true); Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder; Wolf’s Michelangelo-Lieder; and the Wesendonck-Lieder by Wagner. It’s a range in which his vast voice can retain immense reserves of breath so as to only provide just as much power as is needed (which is a lot!). The listener will surely get the feeling that they are rediscovering certain works, some of which are often voiced by a woman – or seen as the private preserve of certain mezzos – as if the composers had re-written them for Groissbock’s benefit, after his May 2018 triumph at the Opéra Bastille, in Philippe Jordan’s production of Parsifal.

Tracklist:
1-01. Günther Groissböck & Gerold Huber – Vier ernste Gesange Op. 121 : 1. Denn es gehet dem Menschen (04:22)
1-02. Günther Groissböck & Gerold Huber – Vier ernste Gesange Op. 121 : 2. Ich wandte mich und sahe an (03:59)
1-03. Günther Groissböck & Gerold Huber – Vier ernste Gesange Op. 121 : 3. O Tod, wie bitter bist du (03:35)
1-04. Günther Groissböck & Gerold Huber – Vier ernste Gesange Op. 121 : 4. Wenn ich mit Menschen und mit Engelzungen redete (04:45)
1-05. Günther Groissböck & Gerold Huber – Wesendonck Lieder, WWV 91 : 1. Der Engel (02:40)
1-06. Günther Groissböck & Gerold Huber – Wesendonck Lieder, WWV 91 : 2. Stehe still! (03:31)
1-07. Günther Groissböck & Gerold Huber – Wesendonck Lieder, WWV 91 : 3. Im Treibhaus (05:01)
1-08. Günther Groissböck & Gerold Huber – Wesendonck Lieder, WWV 91 : 4. Schmerzen (02:17)
1-09. Günther Groissböck & Gerold Huber – Wesendonck Lieder, WWV 91 : 5. Traume (04:37)
1-10. Günther Groissböck & Gerold Huber – Michelangelo-Lieder : 1. Wohl denk ich oft an mein vergangnes Leben (02:00)
1-11. Günther Groissböck & Gerold Huber – Michelangelo-Lieder : 2. Alles endet, was entstehet (04:04)
1-12. Günther Groissböck & Gerold Huber – Michelangelo-Lieder : 3. Fuhlt meine Seele das ersehnte Licht (03:41)
1-13. Günther Groissböck & Gerold Huber – Ruckert-Lieder, Op.44 : 1. Ich atmet’ einen linden Duft (02:24)
1-14. Günther Groissböck & Gerold Huber – Ruckert-Lieder, Op.44 : 3. Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder! (01:24)
1-15. Günther Groissböck & Gerold Huber – Ruckert-Lieder, Op.44 : 2. Liebst du um Schonheit (02:19)
1-16. Günther Groissböck & Gerold Huber – Ruckert-Lieder, Op.44 : 5. Um Mitternacht (06:04)
1-17. Günther Groissböck & Gerold Huber – Ruckert-Lieder, Op.44 : 4. Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen (06:16)